Project Details
- Date: March - October 2013
- Client: Bata Shoe Museum / Nuit Blanche
Ad Astra was an interactive experience that immersed visitors into an infinite night sky and created a quiet — but highly memorable — retreat from a festival known for crowds and all-night adventures across the city. One of the core goals of the project was to create a simple, photogenic intervention that the general public could immerse themselves within, and as well, become an active participant in a collective experience.
thus, you shall go to the stars
The 20x20 foot room was filled with over 150 spherical lights, and clad from floor-to-ceiling in mirrored acrylic panels to create the impression of an infinite night sky. Eight at a time, visitors were invited to enter into the space to explore. Open-ended interactions encouraged exploration, and upon discovery of the eight hidden 'trigger' lights, the overall space responded with location-specific music and lighting changes in sync to the audio. Beyond the visual experience, Ad Astra turned small visitor interactions into large spatial responses.
"Once inside the dreamlike (or was I just dreaming?) space, there was a sense of peacefulness amongst those enjoying the aesthetically pleasing, almost otherworldly void we found ourselves a part of."
Conductive paint paired with a capacitive sensor turned certain lights into triggers for a location-specific audio track.
Mirrored acrylic panels reflected the small volume of space into an infinite experience, inviting photo-ops and selfies.